Trial by Fire
by Bindi
Summary: FINALLY UPDATED! Sorry folks, had a slight run in with real life. Anyway, the Titan's crew aren't the only ones to have nightmares.
1. The assignment

For anyone who has never read a fanfic I place these words.  These are not my characters.  Paramount owns any and all Star Trek Next Generation or Excalibur characters.  I am just a writer that likes to see what kind of trouble that they can get in under my guidance.

Out of the Frying Pan

            "Mac, you do realize that this officially makes us the laughing stock of the fleet?"  Captain Elizabeth Shelby indulged in a tone that she only reserved for her husband, she wailed.

            "Eppy, it's not that bad."  Truthfully Mackenzie Calhoun really could empathize with his wife, but considering there was only so much commiseration that could be offered over subspace, he was trying to placate her enough to get some sleep.  Unfortunately he was not having very much success at preventing the storm that was brewing on the _Trident_.

            "Mac, get real.  Do I have to tick off everything that makes it that bad?"

            There was a sigh from Calhoun, felt more than heard.  "No."  

            "Let me start with the most normal thing around here, us.  Mac, how many married couples do you know of that command their own ships and are never apart more than a couple of weeks?"  She had either not heard, or was pointedly ignoring her husband.  "Then there is my first officer.  Kat Mueller is normal from the outside, until you take into account that you and she were lovers at one point.  These two things are enough to get strange looks.  Jellico resents our assignments, but at least in that I find a measure of comfort.  Let's now look at my bridge crew.  My security chief and his best friend, and with whom he may or may not be involved with, are both displaced from their time, and both of them served with the infamous Captain James T. Kirk, I am not even going to mention their physical appearance.  My science officer is an elf who, because of his biology, has more offers for sexual partners than the aforementioned Captain.  My assistant security chief looks like a big white gorilla.  And now I have another one in the form of my temporary second officer.  That is just my bridge.   Shall we look at yours?"

            Mac started to protest that she did not need to but after all the years that they had been together, he had learned that when Eppy got rolling, the only way for it to really end was to let her put the brakes on herself.  So again he sighed and let her continue to rant.  After all he felt that if she was this riled up it was better for her to take it out on him in this manner than for her to let it build until she exploded.

            "You have a first officer that is wholly both sexes.  S/he is mated to your CMO, who is a Vulcan.  They have a son together.  Your conn officer is part, for lack of a better term, God.  He has even stopped Q in his tracks before.  Your ops officer is the daughter of an immortal, and said immortal is also a member of your crew."

            She continued in this vein for several minutes, listing every member of both crews that she could think of that either had a very shaded past and had only gotten a fresh start on one of their ships, or were so different in looks, race or philosophy from the norm in the fleet meaning that yet again the only chance they had of a 'normal' career was either on the _Trident_ or _Excalibur._  Mac had to admit he was impressed.  Not only by her memory but also in the fact that she was right.  The two of them really did command the Noah's Arcs of the Fleet.

            "Mac we already are a freak show.  Now I have to be saddled with another one simply because Nechayev and Jellico think it will do him good.  I swear Mac, if I didn't have a belief in a supreme being before, I do now.  And that Being has a very sick sense of humor."

            Mac had been waiting patiently, which for him was a very hard thing to do.  Finally he felt that she had begun to hit the point where she was beginning to repeat herself, but she hadn't begun to slow down.  He decided that it was time to put an end to it.  He knew that she needed to vent her frustration, but he frankly had had enough of it.  She was simply upset at what hoop the fleet had just put her through.  Not that Mac did not understand her situation, he did.  He also knew her well enough to know that she really did not want to get rid of her crew just because they were different from what she thought Starfleet officers should be.  She actually did command a crew that was by the book before, and found she did not fit as well as she liked, which is why she had been offered the _Excalibur_ when she was commissioned to replace the one that blew up.  Now she had the _Trident, _which was something in between the two extremes.  She just did not like this newest charge, Commander Thomas Riker, transporter accident double of Captain William Riker.  The man's simple existence had been what Eppy had focused on during her rant.  She seemed to miss what Mac would have focused on; the man was ex-Maquis and had been an SI operative for the last several years.  No, Eppy's only concern had been who he was, a second incarnation of Will Riker.  When Mac thought about it, she might be right to be worried.  Her and Will did NOT get along well.  They worked great together, but they could barely tolerate each other at times.  Finally he decided that he would put the brakes on himself.  If the man really was a carbon copy of Will the odds were better than even that they would kill each other within a week, if not, this could actually be a boon in disguise.  As well as Will and her could work together when they had to, maybe if Tom's personality worked with hers it could be a good thing.  Mac realized that she had been going on for a solid ten minutes.  "Calm down Eppy.  That's enough.  I know you and Will Riker do not get along, but Tom is not Will.  They may have been at one point but they have lived very different lives for the last twenty or so years.  Even if the man really is still exactly like Will you will still be able to work with him long enough to get though the next two months.  You did it with Will and I know you can do it now.  And think about it, this time the roles are reversed.  You have the chair now and I somehow doubt that you wouldn't use it to your advantage."

            "_Grozit,_ Mac.  You have a valid point.  But I still am thoroughly ticked that Jellico and Nechayev are doing this to me.  I sometimes think they only want to find out how much weirdness can exist on one ship, and they want to see how much it takes to drive a Captain completely nuts from it."

            "Hey, you can put up with me, and since I know that I fall into the weird category I can assume that you can take a lot more."

            "That I can."  Mac could see the fire dying in her eyes.  She was still upset, but at least now she wasn't on the verge of throttling the next person she saw, just because they were there.  "You are right, I can get through this.  So, now that you have managed to make me think again, I will say good night.  I'll see you in two days, after I meet the _Titan _to receive my new XO."

            "I love you Eppy, good night."

            "Good night Mac."

            Tom Riker had been pleasantly surprised at the last seven days.  Not only did he get to log in another thirty odd hours of flight time he had been lucky enough to get to certify for his bridge officer's certificate.  It was strange when he did though.  Commander LeBeau had been able to proctor him through most of the exams, but in two sections Deanna had been the one to monitor him, and not just any two either, engineering and conn.  Both of those entailed making decisions that placed officers and/or the ship in possibly fatal situations.  In a way it made sense that Deanna administered these sections, she could read his reactions better than anyone.  The rest of his time had been spent in the company of the Rikers and LeBeau.  Tina had been a charming partner and by the time he was ready to depart he began to feel that it would definitely be possible to learn to be only be Deanna's friend.  Tina went a long way toward reminding him that he was still quite interested in the opposite sex.  Now all he had to do was face his first Fleet assignment in over fifteen years.  He knew the job, but could he do it?

            "You'll do wonderfully."  A musical and very welcome voice entered the transporter room.

            "Deanna," Tom guarded his mind; he figured she had read him enough to hear what he had been thinking.  "What is that?"  He pointed to what looked like an old fashioned crash helmet under her arm.

            "It's a present, and no to the unspoken question written on your face, I did not read you when I came in.  I did feel the understandable jitters.  But the rest of it came from your facial expression and my own experience.  Will wore the same look you just had when we first stepped foot here, and he had several temporary commands, including both the D and E before he took this ship.  As for my experience, that is where the present comes in."

            Tom looked at the helmet.  He just could not fathom why she would give him something like this.  "I don't understand.  Not that I don't appreciate the thought, but why the helmet?"

            "You know the D crashed, but you haven't been told the whole thing.  The why is not as important but when she went down, Will was in command, and I was at the conn.  A few years later we went through another crisis that required an entire armada to handle the situation.  I was fortunate enough to get a chance to take command of a ship for a while, the _Marco Polo._  When I took her, Will gave me this as a joke.  Over the years it has come to mean to me that even in the midst of a crisis that humor and good friends are both part of being a good commander, not just being able to make the decisions.  Will has wanted me to get rid of it for years.  I never could.  Now that I have rediscovered you, I think that you should be the one to have it."

            "Thank you.  Are you sure you want to part with this?  I thought that it looked lovely next to the piece of ships hull and _Bat'leth_."

            "Not you too.  I like my little corner.  Now off with you.  You have a job to do, and so do I, the same one as a matter of fact.  Now go."  She embraced him, "and good luck."

            Standing in front of Tom was a strawberry blonde wearing Captain's pips.  If Tom were to categorize her expression it stood between a gape and curious amusement.  Not exactly what he had been expecting.  First, he realized that she would momentarily think that he was Will and have to remind herself that he wasn't.  As the gape resolved itself, she began to assume as detached air of authority that set off warning bells in Tom.  There was going to be trouble in this assignment, he just knew it.  "Permission to come aboard?"

            "Welcome Commander Riker.  I am Elizabeth Shelby.  I'm the boss around here."  While her initial demeanor had softened, there was still a bit of standoffishness to the woman.  "Since I am not known for keeping my mouth shut I will start by telling you that you are going to have to prove to me that you are not another Commander Riker that I had so many problems with.  Until then, there will be very little that you and I will find to talk about.  So, with that in mind, tell me about yourself."

            While not the most pleasant of meetings, by the time Captain Shelby had shown him around Tom began to get the feeing that Will had set him up by telling him that they would get along well.  Tom was sure he would make it through the assignment, but he wasn't sure if he would still be sane.  She was a remarkable woman and was definitely at home with her command.  She did not however come out of the meeting with a complete belief that he and Will were not the same person.  She fortunately did agree to give it some time.  Tom noticed that she was very careful not to put him on the same watch as her when she gave him the rotation schedule.

            Alone in his quarters after she left he began to organize his things.  One thing he noticed was that she pointedly ignored the helmet tucked under his arm.  Oh, she had looked at it and returned her gaze to it several times, but she never said a word.  He had about five hours before his first watch, so he took the time to get a little rest.


	2. The mission

Chapter 2

            Whether it had been on a Starfleet vessel or Maquis, on every ship which Tom had served, the night shift was generally quiet.  It might have been here as well, if it hadn't been for the lieutenant running the science station.  For the last three hours she had talked incessantly.  Tom had until this point accommodated her by answering her questions.  But in the last forty-five minutes or so he had come to the breaking point.  It had taken him a week to finally get to this point, but he'd decided that he'd had enough.

            Fortunately, she was the only one that caused him any grief.  The week he had been night watch commander had been beneficial.  It had given him the opportunity to truly get his command legs back, as well as becoming accustomed to this ship's normal operations.  Although in his estimation, normal was becoming a very subjective word.  The crew that was under his watch were not precisely normal, but at least they weren't too far from normal for Tom.

            His conn officer definitely fell into the slightly strange category.  Esn. Lightman was a fairly quiet man, although there were times when he would begin to mutter to himself, sometimes in characterization.  At first Tom had worried.  But on the third night he finally pieced it out enough to be at ease.  He then asked the man and got his suspicions confirmed.  Lightman was a part time novelist and actually had a couple of his works published.  He had requested to stay on graveyards so he could have the quiet time to work on his latest tale.  His ops officer was actually totally normal for a fresh out of the Academy ensign, if you ignored the fact that she graduated at the age of twenty.  She had a quick wit and was easy to talk to.  It was from her that he learned the ship's gossip and how the rest of the command crew fit together, on both this ship and Calhoun's _Excalibur_.

            On the other side of the coin, there was the girl on sciences.  Lieutenant Rhiannon Meyran was nothing short of a genius.  After the first barrage from her Tom had chosen to check her service record.  It was very impressive, albeit very brief.  The _Trident_ was only her second posting since graduation.  Her first was as a research assistant in the Daystrom Institute.  She served there for eight months as an assistant to Commander Reginald Barclay on Project Backtrail.  The essence of the project was reverse engineering findings from _Voyager_.  She held a doctoral degree in quantum theory and masters degrees in both warp field theory and engineering.  Honestly she was very overqualified for her job.  When he finally finished with the file he found the reason for it.  Attached to her out briefing was a personal recommendation from Comdr. Barclay.  He cited that while she was one of the top researchers in the field of quantum mechanics she had a problem accepting authority and was too flighty for the project.  He suggested she have two or three ship tours to work off the nerves, in any department but engineering.  He implied her over exuberant personality as a benefit in a think tank, but detrimental in a crisis.  Thus she had ended up here.  She had been an excellent officer as far as Tom could tell, but Barclay was right, the questions were going to drive him nuts.

            Most of her recent questions had revolved around Tom himself, specifically the incident on Nervala IV.  Even after twenty plus years Tom still felt a little uneasy talking about it.  "Meyran, do you ever talk about anything other than quantum theory?"

            "Yes sir, why?"

"Frankly I will tell you that while I know a fair amount about the subject it has never been very interesting for me.  I don't mind chatter on the bridge, especially on graveyard shift.  But this is getting to the point that if you do not change the subject I am going to ask you to refrain from any conversation at all while on duty."

            "Sorry sir.  But you see, I did a graduate paper on quantum change within transporters and I used the incident on Nervala IV as part of the case study on how atmospheric interference could change the degree of phase shift that occurs on a very minute level every time a person is transported.  I have always found your case fascinating in it's own right.  I also have a minor in psychology and I have wanted to study both you and Captain Riker for the last couple of years."  She was literally bouncing, not obviously but bouncing none the less.

            "Meyran…" he scolded.  She took the not so subtle hint.  The rest of the shift was much quieter.  Once the woman had returned to her duties Tom made a mental note to see Shelby in the morning about the overly enthusiastic Lieutenant.  _Maybe I will suggest to Elizabeth that Meyran's next assignment be the _Titan.

            "Captain, I think you need to see this."  M'Ress commented from her station.

            "What have you got Lieutenant?"  Shelby swiveled in her chair as she addressed the Catian officer.

            "Sir, a normal long range sensor sweep of the sector has picked up on the remains of an ion storm.  The abnormal part is that we run these sweeps often enough that we should have picked up on it long before now.  What we are picking up on is the end of the storm, not it's forming.  And that is not the strangest part."

            "What else, as if I really want to know."  When M'Ress classified something as strange Shelby knew to believe her without knowing the details.

            "The apparent origin is the same system as the gateway that you and Captain Calhoun came out of during the Gateways incident.  Within the system itself."

_dor two of quiet around here, not with this crew.  _"Conn, set a course for that planet."

            "Aye sir."

            There hadn't been much of her shift left but Eppy never noticed.  When she did realize that it was nearly time for gamma shift to come on she was rather testy.  Now that they were in  range of the more detailed sensor array they finally had a fairly decent picture of the system as it was now.  From what they could tell they only thing that allowed them to know this was the system that had plagued her and Mac several years ago was its spatial coordinates and the presence of a currently inactive gateway.  The planet itself had undergone climatic change, and while from what they could tell still to cold t live on, the storms that had nearly killed her no longer raged on the surface.  The storm they had found the remnants of had actually occurred within the system, and near the only class M planet in the whole area.  This was what she had been contemplating for a while now.  Why had they not picked up on this earlier.  Granted they had not been this way in about two weeks, but ion storms just did not come and go in that short of a time span.  

            The amount of information that had been gathered so far had a two word conclusion for the storm 'cause unknown'.  By the time they had given her this she had nearly lost control of her already short temper.  After snipping at Kat for giving her the report Shelby came to the conclusion that she really did not have to do this to herself.  She could have left this for Kat and gone to bed earlier, but she had found one part of the report worth enough of her failing attention that she elected to go ahead and stay until gamma shift.  There were pockets of the left over ion fields where it appeared to be 'out of phase'.  These pockets were very tiny, only detectable because Meyran had recalibrated the _Trident's_ lateral array for her own experiments in quantum mechanics._  Well if I just stick it out until Tom (_for some reason she still refused to use his last name)_ comes on duty brief him on what we've got and throw a bone to Meyran.  Maybe she won't harp on him as much and I won't have to arrest him for murder.  Although a week ago, I bet they entire crew on both this ship and the Excalibur were betting how long it would take until I would kill Tom._  She only had another half hour so she took the time to stretch, grab a sandwich, and listen to a little music before calling in her Number Two.

   


	3. Why did I take this job?

Chapter 3

            "Wow!  These pockets are very similar to the degradation patterns I studied at Daystrom."  The animate woman seemed very enthused with the project that Shelby had thrown in her lap.  Before either her Captain or Riker could voice objections she proceeded to spout of some of the research.

            "Lieutenant, what did we discuss last night?"  Tom fixed her with a glare.  "Get started.  I want a preliminary report in a couple of hours."  A second glare stopped the woman from making another comment.  "But not until then, dismissed."  He waited for her to exit herself before addressing Shelby.  "Are you sure that you wanted to do that Captain?"

            "If I had someone more qualified I wouldn't.  But she is one of the best in her field, in spite of her quirks.  There was also the vain hope that she would leave you alone for a while."  There was sympathy in her eyes.  "Tom believe it or not I actually understand what it is like to be in your position.  When I commanded the _Exeter_ there were a lot of people who kept asking me about Mac.  I really got tired of it.  The difference here is I thought he was dead.  I admit it was a vain hope but at least you get a couple of hours of quiet before she starts again."  She never liked remembering that time of her life.  Not that she did not enjoy her stint as captain there, but between her grief of losing Mac and her own self discovery she often found that she preferred to keep her mind off of those six months.  "Tom admit I am impressed with how this past week has gone.  There are still enough similarities between you and Will Riker that I have to stop and think every time I want to talk to you.  But they way you have handled dealing with Rhiannon was very different from how Will would have.  Keep it up and the only problem you will have is the same  scenario that any set of twins have."

            "Thank you sir."

            "Now I have a question that might seem like an insult.  From these preliminary reports the area that we are heading for is riddled with these phase anomalies, most of them small enough to not be seen.  The pilot is going to have to be able to avoid them since we don't have an idea of what they would do to the ship.  My conn officers are good, but I don't think they are up to flying a bird this size through what is essentially a mine field, and the mines are smaller than escape pods.  The question is this, are you as good a pilot as Will?"

            "Yes, I am.  I am probably better than him now.  I got plenty of chances to practice, mostly in the bad lands.  I can get her in there."

            "Good.  We should have a reasonably good idea of what those things can do to this girl by morning.  I want you to get a couple of hours rest in the morning and then you are going to take the _Trident _in there.  Knowing the lieutenant we should have a very detailed report before your shift is over."  Eppy did not like the idea of asking Tom to do this.  The only pilot she really trusted in something like this was not even on this ship.  McHenry would be better suited to any condition where you could not rely on the sensors, or your sight.  But at best the _Excalibur_ was two days from them and her instinct were telling her that she couldn't wait that long.  "You have the bridge.  I am going to bed."

              "Commander, I have the update you requested."

            Meyran's comment was the first she had made in almost three hours.  Until this point Tom had been enjoying what he felt was normal for the graveyard shift.  The conversations that had been passing around the bridge quietly had been innocuous enough.  Mostly the chatter that is normally exchanged by coworkers during a shift.  "Go ahead Lieutenant, but in concise words and no straying off the subject."

            "Yes sir.  But I am going to have to warn you that this will entail bringing you into it.  Sorry can't be helped."

            "Noted, just no more personal questions unless they have a direct bearing on what you have for me."

            "Aye.  Ok.  Right now everything we have seen hints to a quantum phase shift, nearly identical to what I have observed in transporter systems.  Very minute, say only  particles effected per million or so atoms.  It's only been a few years that we have been able to detect it.  And the degree of shift is similarly minute, .0057 percent.  This is so small that when a person is reintegrated both the pattern buffers and Heisenberg compensators miss it.  For something as complex as a person, it never amounts to anything and our normal regeneration process renders the change moot.  For it to even be detectable a person would have to transport several thousand times in a relatively short time.  And even then it most likely would not progress to the point where it would be seen on the atomic level."  She paused for a breath.

            "What does this have to do with either me or what's out there?"

               "Where it has to deal with you is that in your particular case I theorize that you were holistically out of phase by that same increment.  Since when your accident happened no one knew that you existed we can't be sure.  Being that little out of phase would not have been noticeable to you since it is close enough to our reality that you could interact as you would have even being in phase.  In the case of what we are seeing here, I think that something similar has happened.  From what I have gathered so far the data points to only a few particles per cubic kilometer of space.  I think that sections of space in this area are out of phase, and to the same degree that you were, which by the way should not be the case now.  As you have lived your new cells would have been in phase with this reality.  In what I have collected so far, the shift is apparently noticeable on the elemental level.  I can't be sure at this distance.  But if it is, we could have a very serious problem."

               "Just how serious?"  So far he had been impressed.  She had remained focused and had not drifted.

               "In the case of you, normal space would not be effected.  But in this case, What we are talking about is large enough to start a cascade reaction, which could most likely start to break the dimensional barrier down.  In an area the size of a planetary system which houses an Iconian gateway, it would be very bad.  If we are very lucky, the phenomenon is still in an early enough stage that we won't have anything to worry about, I won't know for sure until I can get really close to one of the areas."

               "Recommendations?"

               "We should be at the outskirts of the system in just over two hours.  When we get there I want to get near one of the larger pocket, I am going to say within transporter range, 40,000 kilometers or closer.  Then I can start to tell for sure what we are dealing with.  There are a couple theories that say something like this can be reversed, but we would need to know the exact cause before we tried anything."

               "Any ideas on that one yet?"

               "None that would hold water.  But everything looks like the whole area was transported."

               _And Q thought me talking to Julianna telepathically was interesting.  He must be getting lax in his omnipotence._


	4. I don't believe this is happening

Chapter 4

            By the time Tom returned from the three-hour nap that Shelby had insisted upon, he was grateful for the time.  There was not any way that he would be able to navigate the area without the rest he had just had.  In an emergency he knew he could have done it but since no one was in danger at the moment he could not see why he should have to push himself to try to do this.  Shelby had been right about something else too.  Meyran had stayed over, leaving only when Tom had returned to the bridge.  She had as detailed a report as anyone could have hoped for, including the most reliable bandwidths for searching for the phase pockets as she named them.  The girl had been wrong on one count.  The phase shift was different from what she had studied before now.  The outward effects were similar enough that Tom figured that anyone in that field would have made a similar assumption.  Unfortunately, while keeping Tom from having to answer more questions from the Lieutenant, the actual phenomenon was much more dangerous than anything Rhiannon had predicted in her models.   She had been conservative in her estimates on the length of time she expected until it became too unstable to even try to stay in the area.  She was sure there would be a major dimensional breach, large enough for entire armadas to come through.  She also maintained a staunch hope that it could be stopped.  The way she had explained it seemed simple enough, find the epicenter and produce an inverse harmonic to the phase shift in the area.  She claimed it should cause everything to revert to normal.  At least it had sounded simple until she began to explain what they had to do to actually put the theory into practice.  Tom did not pretend to understand much of it.  Physics was never a strong suit and it had been way too many years since the Academy.  The Captain hadn't had much better of an understanding, although Gleu (the Selevian science head) seemed to get most of what she was talking about.  This seemed to please Meyran to no end and she continued to talk avidly to the elf well past when she gave the report.

            "Everything is as good as it gets.  Ready for some fancy flying Number Two?"  Aside from name and rank Eppy had been trying to find a way to address the man.  Generally the second officer was XO and the First was Number One.  In this case Kat always preferred XO.  A couple of years ago she had taken to using Number Two.  It seemed to work out well.  It was also a sign that she was coming to believe that Tom was actually a good officer, a lot like Will, but then again Will was an excellent officer himself.  The two of them didn't get along too well most of the time but that did not mean that he was a bad officer, just different.  At this moment Tom was behaving exactly like Will would, cocky and very sure of himself.  With Will it usually masked his worry and more than ninety percent of the time the cockiness was merited.  Now Eppy just had to figure out where on Tom the cockiness was just that.

           "Let's do it."  He stepped to the conn.  "You're relieved."  The ensign at the console simply nodded and stood.  Tom looked confident when he took the seat of the conn.  He knew he could do this, but everyone seemed to forget the fact that he had never flown a _Galaxy-class_ ship before this moment.  He had however gotten his sea legs back on a very similar ship, a _Sovereign-class._  The two ships were similar enough that he had no problem knowing exactly what did what.  As a matter of fact the controls were still almost identical to the ones he had flown back in the day of being a pilot full time.  What he would still need to do was get used to this ship's response times, which he would have to do even from one ship to another of the same class.  He just wished he had had the opportunity to do it before now.  

            Eight hours.  Tom had been at this for over eight hours now.  Ever so slowly moving toward his goal.  After all of this time they had barely covered a quarter of the distance.  Compounding that was the fact that he had only had three hours of sleep and it explained the reason he was rather testy.  This was not a good thing when one took into consideration that his Captain had a reputation for being rather testy and snappy herself.  After inching their way through the anomaly both Riker and Shelby had gotten to the point that they were snapping at each other every few minutes.  The up side at the moment was they had taken to trying to up one another with the jibes.  Most of the crew ignored them, or at least tried to.  Currently it had been quiet for the last few minutes.

            "Ok Number Two, do you think we are going to get through this?"  After twelve hours on the bridge Shelby had become quite irritable.  She had a relatively short temper to begin with and with al the tension of trying to fly through what amounted to a mind field with the mines being this small, she kept finding herself wanting to scream.  Over the past three or four hours her sentences had gotten shorter, except when it came to her and Tom's banter.  They had actually managed to start to get along well enough that she had been going back and forth with him for the entire time he was piloting.  They weren't truly insults but more of the lines of two friends having a gripe session with one another.

            Now t was Tom's turn to make a wise crack.  "Give me about two or three days maybe.  Either that you give the word and I punch through this."  It wasn't much in the way of wiseass comments but he was getting too tired to care at this point.

            "Could we?"

            "Meyran would be better to ask.  She has had her head buried in the databases and sensor readings since she came back on duty and the entire shift before that."

            "Lieutenant," Shelby turned to the over active woman at the sciences, "What do you think?  Do we keep dancing or do we sprint for home?"

            "If we had the time I would say slow and easy does it.  Unfortunately we don't have that luxury.  We need to get through this before all the surrounding pockets become unstable enough to begin to form dimensional rifts.  We can't just 'tiptoe through the tulips' any more.  We have to get through this in the next five or six hours or the rifts closest to us to will begin to shift to another dimension.  That will play havoc on us."  Granted she had not gone into exactly what would happen.  The entire definition would take over an hour and she doubted that the Captain or Commander would understand more than half of it.

            "Just what kind of havoc are we talking about Meyran?"  Shelby played at a stray lock of her hair, a sure sign that she was getting to the end of what she could tolerate for the moment.

            "If we maneuvered only through the youngest of the pockets, we might just blow a few relays.  The warp and computer cores are shielded enough to withstand the shift.  But if we went through one of the oldest, ones where we were more than fifteen per cent out of phase, all bets are off.  The faster we went through the less likely we would be affected by them.  If you were going to do this, I would recommend doing it at warp.  We would accelerate some of the aging, but right now the pockets don't extend far enough into subspace to cause too much trouble.  But I would have engineering ready for just about anything when we did try it."  One thing Meyran was glad for, once the Captain had given her the lead on this project she never doubted her abilities.  She had been accepting of her opinions as much as any of her senior officers, and in this case she even seemed to accept that her second officer seemed to differ to her at the moment.  The silent accolade made her smile slightly.

            "You heard the woman.  She thinks flying by the seat of your pants is the best thing to do.  Do you think you could manage a warp jump, in system and put us into orbit?"  Shelby hoped the man's innate cockiness would prevail, as well as is truly incredible talents.

            "I might be tired, but give me a minute or two to run the numbers and I can do it.  If it was just the hotshot maneuver every academy cadet tries it would already be done, but I have got to skirt around the worst of the trouble spots."

            "Do it."  Shelby leaned back into her chair, and tried to show patience.

            "Sir, incoming message. For you and Commander Riker.  It's marked urgent, but not classified in any way.  It's from the _Titan._"  Meyran piped up from where she had just finished sending Riker the best possible course to plot.

            "Tom, belay your maneuver.  I want to see this first.  I have a feeling we need to."  Eppy did not have her husband's near supernatural danger sense, but all the years around him had given her one that operated in a similar fashion.  This was not going to be good.  "On screen."

            Both Tom and Eppy expected to see Tom's twin fill the screen.  Instead what they say was the _Titan's _First Officer, a woman that Eppy had only met once, and that was when she had picked up Tom a little over a week ago.  "Captain Shelby, I know this is going to sound strange but a situation has come to our attention which concerns both your ship and the _Excalibur._

            "Earlier this evening, both Captain Riker and Counselor Troi fell into what could only be described as a dreaming fugue state.  Both are recovering, although the Captain suffered physiological damage from the state that produced severe burns.  Again I assure you they will recover."  Tom paled a little; Shelby noticed the change in the man.

            "Here is where we get strange.  While it is well known that the Counselor is telepathic, it is lesser known that the Captain and both are as well.  With the aide of their daughter, who is also a telepath, I was able to see into their dream and help our Chief Medical Officer to bring them out of the state.  Both are still unconscious but are out of any danger.

            "What I learned from the rapport s why I contacted you.  From what we have ascertained both of your ships are in jeopardy.  If we have interpreted the language correctly, and we are waiting for the Captain and Counselor to wake to learn more, is that you will fall under attack by something or someone who can be represented by a phoenix the size of a starship, or larger.  If you have any clues as to what that would mean please let us know if we can help from here.  

            "I know this seems a bit far fetched, but one thing I have learned over the years, it is to trust an experience a telepath has, especially Commander Troi.  With four of our five telepaths having experienced this now, I figured it was time to do something about it. We are en route of your position, although it will take us six days to reach you.  If you feel that it is necessary, contact Starfleet.  There should be several vessels within reach.  Personally I would rather not have to report this to Jellico.  Will still has the footprints from the last time.  Be careful.  _Titan_ out."

            For a long moment there was silence on the bridge.  Here was a respected officer telling them to watch out for a flaming bird to attack them, and on nothing more than a dream.  For most officers in the fleet a message like this would cause the receiving Captain to call their reporting official and request a mental inquiry.  Shelby on the other hand had been at this too long.  Strange was such a part of her day that she couldn't even have shore leave anymore without having something out of the ordinary happen.  Which was why her outburst seemed so out of character at first.  "Is she sane?  How could this be happening?"  _Great Bird of Thallon.  _The oft-used epithet of Sy Cwan, Mac's resident Thallonian, came to her mind.

            "Captain, in the week that I was on board that ship I learned a lot.  Not just what Starfleet had become in my absence, but about the ship's crew, especially her most senior officers.  Counselor Troi apparently has more precognitive skill than I was ever aware of.  Several times she has saved the _Enterprise_ with her talents.  On that alone I would give what Commander LeBeau says merit.  She is also right that Captain Riker is telepathic.  Something happened just after his first year on the _Titan_, I am not quite sure what.  But it left him a full telepath.  The Commander is also a telepath, although not as strong as Riker and Troi.  Julianna is well o her way to being at least as strong as Will and just as empathic as Deanna."  The mentioning of Julie left Riker even tenser than he had been.  "I hope the baby is ok."  He muttered, but wasn't addressing Eppy.

            "Did you say something else Tom?"

            "I'm sorry.  Deanna is pregnant.  LeBeau didn't mention how the baby was and I am a bit worried."

            "I will ask when I send a return message.  Now as for why I barked a moment ago, I was not truly questioning the Commander's sanity, I have spent too many years as Mac Calhoun's Number One and later as his wife to not take strange sources of information as valid.  Her description of what was after us is what I was questioning.  Back before the last _Excalibur_ was blown up, as a matter of fact not too long after I signed on as Calhoun's First Officer, the planet of Thallon was destroyed by a hatching creature.  The creature was an extremely large phoenix.  We were the only Starfleet ship to witness it.  She's right about not wanting to report this to anyone else if we can help it.  My guess is the _Titan_ is the closest ship anyway.  Personally I don't want to talk to Jellico if I don't have to."

            "Do you know Admiral Nechayev said pretty much the same thing when she gave me this assignment?"

            "I can believe it."  Shelby barely heard the remark from behind her.

            "I have a bad feeling about this."  Meyran muttered just loud enough for most of the crew to hear.

            Tom winced at the phrase.  She could not have know she had just used what he had learned was Tina's trouble barometer.  Every time Tina LeBeau used those words the entire crew prepared for stormy weather.  "Elizabeth," Tom used her first name, hoping to impress the sincerity of his worry, "Let's get this over with.  I am ready whenever you give the word."  He did not address Meyran's remark, but he knew she was bright enough to know that he was just as worried as she was.    


	5. Is there anything else that can happen t...

Chapter 5

            "Mac, this is too weird even for us.  I just can't see some cosmic entity, or even simple coincidence possibly placing us in a situation where we, of all crews in the fleet, would be the ones to have to deal with something like this.  Not just once mind you, but twice."  As soon as Tom had gotten them into orbit, Shelby had retreated into her ready room; she had nothing to do at the moment other than waiting for the engineers to repair everything that had blown. And there had been plenty.  If Tom hadn't been the one at the helm it would have been worse.  As it was they were looking at two or three days before they could manage more than short jumps at speed.  The first thing she did after getting the damage assessment was call Mac.  After the message she got and her own gut instinct she knew that these dreams had to be more literal than meets the eye.

            "Eppy, you should know better than to say things like that.  Every time one of us says that it gets weirder.  Now start from the top and tell me why you are not only angry, but scared."

            "I am not scared."  She would have been if she thought long enough about it.  It was not her job to be scared, regardless of the situation.  She had faced the Borg, Romulans, Cardassians, and even beings who had been treated as Gods in human history.  Hell, she had even been in the Xenexian afterlife before.  The thought of the Great Bird of Thallon coming after her and Mac specifically scared her silly.  Not necessarily because her life would be in jeopardy, that circumstance happened frequently enough that she never gave that fear much thought after she acknowledged it.  "I just can not figure out who I irritated enough to merit my life being like this."

            A sympathetic look passed Mac's eyes.  Then it faded, to be replaced by the same look he held on the bridge during a firefight.  In the most serious voice he had he addressed his wife.  "You fell in love with me."  This was enough to bring her back to the present.  "Now tell me what you found out and then we will see just how weird it is, ok?"

            "Ok. But I think you will agree with me."  She began briefing him.  

During the whole account she remained the very professional Starfleet officer that she purported herself, she noted this with a detachment that had taken her years to truly master.  As she spoke, she watched him change.  In a matter of minutes he had gone from being the concerned, but frustrated Mac who was her husband to being Captain Mackenzie Calhoun.  However by the time she had finished explaining the phoenix image the Captain had been replace by M'k'n'zy of Calhoun and warlord of Xenex.  "Captain Shelby the _Excalibur _can be there in six hours.  There is more than one person on this ship that has a score to settle with the Great Bird, starting with me and working its way down."  He spoke more softly after the initial venom came out as he closed the channel.  "Eppy, I love you.  Be careful."  Then finally he was the Captain again.  "Calhoun out."

"Calhoun to Lefler."  It only took a moment for her to respond.  Calhoun was speaking before she was finished.

"Lieutenant, set a course for the damned planet where Shelby and I were picked up during the gateways fiasco.  I can't remember the name of it right now.  And call a senior staff meeting.  I have just found out something that I think everyone should know.  Make sure Sy Cwan is there as well."  Mac was not a happy man at the moment.  For once his wife's tendency to find paranoia comforting was actually probably the correct assumption to make.  There truly had to be some form of something manipulating them at that moment.  It wasn't that Mac did not believe in random events in his universe and that some of them bordered on being supernaturally inspired; he honestly subscribed to the notion that ironies such as these were simple happenstance.  This time however he simply could not come to accept that this was one of those events.  The whole thing smacked of being scripted by someone.  Fate had definitely conspired that he deal with the creature that caused his entire life to change just one more time.  He did not get much of a chance to stew over the situation when the computer addressed him.  If he had been on any other ship in the fleet, he would have had a very blessed moment of silence in his ready room.  But no, he had to be the Captain of the only ship in service with a ghost for a computer.  Morgan Lefler had been part of his life for quite a while now.  Even though her physical body had been killed in a fight with the Beings, her personality had since resided in the computer of the _Excalibur._

"Captain, don't you think that you are being overly rash?"

_Why me?  Not only do I have a zoo for a crew, I have the only ship in known existence that has become possessed.  Not only is it sentient, she is Morgan Lefler, immortal and mother of my ops officer.  I am beginning to think that I did something in a former life to merit this form of punishment._

"Morgan, have you been listening the whole time?"

"I'm the ship's computer, in my own little sphere I am omniscient."

"You may well be, but you are also at least somewhat human.  You are more than capable of not paying attention to things when you want to, you can simply let your processors handle it automatically."  Mac was trying very hard not to show his frustration too much.  Generally she did keep her nose out of day-to-day affairs, but when she did pry it usually resulted in Mac feeling like he had just spoken to his mother.  Generally he tolerated it, and in truth he would not trade the inconvenience of having to put up with her.  She could pilot the ship in a firefight, which since her personality was wholly human he could trust her to do well.  She could navigate, man tactical, hell she was even a better doctor than the EMH and had a much better personality that Selar had most of the time.   But there were times that he wished he really could purge her from the system.

"Morgan, I think I can get you to understand why I feel the way I do about this situation if you would access any files that you have on the great bird of Thallon.  I want you to pay special attention to my personal logs, as well as anything found from Sy Cwan on the subject."  Mac waited patiently for her to complete the task.  Had she still been in a physical body he would have to wait several days for her to go through all the information but at least now all he had to wait was a few seconds.

"I think I see your point.  I will withdraw my comment.  Did Admiral Jellico really say those things to you?"

"That and more.  I was in his office for quite a while that day.  And now that you have also absorbed the sensor logs, as well as heard my conversation with Captain Shelby, I think you can understand why I feel the way I do on the matter."

"Not just that sir.  I think that you also don't want to hear the aftermath."

"Ah, but here is where I can extract some revenge on having you in my computer core.  You are going to have to hear all of the aftermath, as you put it, as well.  Unless he decides to order us back to Earth to do his dressing down in his office."

"I can tune it out, as you just put it." 

If it were any other member of his crew Calhoun would have called them to task for overstepping what they should say.  But in this case there really wasn't a point to the exercise.  A normal crew member could face being transferred, put on report, or even worse for being insubordinate, but what on Earth could he do when it was the _ship_ that was calling him out?  "Not if I order you not to.  You may be a computer now Lefler," he purposely addressed her as if she really _were_ just a regular crewman, "but you still are under my command, even if they have not come up with the appropriate rank for a ship."

"You know, maybe you should have tried harder to get me out of here."

"The thought of exorcism had crossed my mind once or twice."

*********

Author's note.  

            I know that it seems weird to see a ship that is sentient.  I just finished reading the latest of the _Excalibur_ books and at the end Morgan had inhabited the ship.  Please look back to the first few chapters.  I am planning a rewrite to incorporate her more into the storyline.  


	6. Why did I ask?

Part 6

          While Mac waited for his crew to be assembled he looked at the data packet that had just been sent to him from his wife.  They had just managed to get into the system when she had called.  Apparently a lot had changed since they had last been there.  Currently the system was riddled with so many pockets that he doubted that anyone could navigate them without serious damage to the ship.  From what she had sent they _had_ sustained plenty themselves.  Luckily Tom was apparently an expert pilot and had managed to keep them out of the worst of it.  From the sensor logs she included most of the area was not capable of being flown through anymore.  Fortunately he had an ace up his sleeve.  It was one that continuously made him smile.  He did not have to rely on any mortal person to try to make impossible calculations; he had Morgan.  He would have been just as happy to have McHenry to do it, but he was no longer available.  It had been years since he had lost both Morgan's mortal body and Mark McHenry.  Morgan was still there in spirit, but Mark had become one of the Beings that nearly killed all of them, guarding a place where the remaining of his kind were held prisoner.

          "Morgan, I need you to take the conn for this trip.  This is going to take some of the most fancy flying imaginable to get to the _Trident_.  I want you and Robin on the controls."

          "Of course Captain.  Shall I take over now?"            

          "Yes.  Since this part is routine, I think can manage that and be at the senior staff meeting.  I want your input on whatever we are facing."  
          "Sir, do you think Captain Shelby is right and we really are dealing with the same creature you did before?"

          "I do at that.  I just never thought that we would see the thing again.  It's been more than ten years now and I hadn't heard a thing about it in that whole time.  Now all of a sudden it is here again.  I know we haven't been out of this sector more than a total of six or eight months the whole time, why now?"

          "Was that a rhetorical question?"

          "Take it any way you want."

          "My guess would be that something changed recently.  I don't know what, if I did you would know too.  But I know I trust your instincts on danger more than my sensor relays sometimes."

          "Thank you for the compliment.  Now would you make sure that everyone necessary is on their way to the conference lounge?"

          "Already on it sir.  Everyone but Robin is heading that way.  She's waiting for her replacement."

          "Good.  Take the conn."

*****

          "Tom, go get some rest.  We aren't going anywhere for a while."  Shelby took her chair as she spoke.

          "Aye sir.  I think I might not even get the uniform off before I fall over."

          "I figured as much.  I sent a message to the _Titan_.  We still have about a five or six minute lag, so it might be a bit for a response.  I did ask about Commander Troi too.  I will call you if there is anything wrong."

          "Thanks, Elizabeth."  Tom was so tired that he did not even realize that he had used her first name.  Maybe Shelby would not be the reason that he would look back on this assignment as trouble.  If a fair portion of the missions that he would have to deal with were like this one he see that as a reason for trouble.

          "Good night Tom."  Shelby watched the weary man leave the bridge.

          _I might just be watching a man who has truly just found himself.  From what his files had said he had been a wanderer and lost track of who he was when he left Starfleet.  Now I am looking at a man who is worn out with worry for other people and yet loving the situation that he is in.  I just hope he stays on this path.  If Kat ever leaves I_ might _just want him back._  The thought followed her back to the present.  "Meyran, do you have anything new for me?"

          "I wish I didn't in this case Captain.  But from the newest sensor readings that I am just now getting I think we only have about four days until the oldest of the anomalies breach a dimensional barrier.  I still have no idea where to yet.  Everything that I have is turning up a big goose egg from the databases."

          "Keep on it.  How long until the _Excal_ gets here?"

          "About four and a half hours, if they don't drop from warp before they get to the system.  Considering who will probably be flying I am going to bet they don't even drop below warp 9 before they get here."

          "You do have a point.  I wouldn't want to be in Mac's shoes with that ship, but if I could get something like Morgan to pilot I would definitely consider putting up with it."

          Even the newest officers knew that her husband commanded the only sentient ship in existence.  How most of them found out Eppy never figured out, but she guessed that it was a phenomenon that had saved her in the past.  They she figured it, if rumors and gossip could power a starship they would have enough excess power to sell to anyone in the quadrant that needed it.  The downside to it was that enough of the rumors lacked truth that she would find herself second-guessing too much if she wholly relied on them.  Kat Mueller entered the bridge just in time to keep her from letting her mind wander much farther.

          "Anything new?"

          "No XO.  I just sent Tom to bed, and I think I am going to my own quarters as well.  Keep me posted and if we get a response from the _Titan _let me know."

          "Done sir.  Sweet dreams."

          Where am I?  Smoke filled the ruins of wherever he was.  From outward appearances Tom Riker was standing on a very abandoned plane.  He should have been freezing to death where he stood but for some reason he wasn't.  Snow cascaded around him like a waterfall.  It was thick and heavy and had all the makings of the blizzards he remembered growing up in Alaska.  There was only one structure in his field of vision.  A stone structure that vaguely reminded him of pictures he had seen of Stonehenge on Earth.  The freestanding gateway loomed over him, daring him to look closer.  Two words coalesced as he moved to where he could see the stones clearly, 'Giant lied."  He could not fathom what that could mean but he still continued to examine the megalithic structure with the practiced eye of a Starfleet officer.  As he watched the object the interior of the frame began to glow.  At first it was a swirling mass, but it eventually resolved itself to one vision.  He could see deep space in front of him.  Father away from the frame he could make out what appeared to be flames burning in the vacuum.  Curiosity nearly got the better of him as he leaned closer.  Belatedly he realized that entering this thing would most likely end with his demise in empty space.

_          He backed away as he watched the spectacle in front of him.  Within moments the scene began to change.  Now the flames became more regular and he thought that he could make out a vague birdlike shape to the embers.  Fascinated he watched the spectacle.  A single human looking woman appeared in space.  She seemed terrified, but not suffering from the lack of oxygen, or the cold of near vacuum.  Then three others appeared as well.  These three he knew, all too well.  Will Riker, Deanna Troi, and Tina LeBeau appeared, looking more confident than the other woman._  The other one must be Lt. Lesman, the ops officer.  _The thought gave Tom pause.  He knew she was part Betazoid, but never realized that she had any telepathy.  He watched as she seemed to try to talk to the bird creature in front of her.  Suddenly the bird cried out and he found himself trying to block the sound by covering his ears.  HE watched in terror as the four people standing there collapsed.  Without any conscious thought Tom leapt through the gateway, screaming.  It never occurred to him that it was Tina's name that came from his lips._


End file.
